Modern concepts in rehabilitation medicine emphasize the need for programs of improvement in muscle, nerve and bone tone, which can only be achieved by a program requiring movement of the patient, preferably by walking. However, physicians, physiotherapists and other professional and non-professional persons who work with paraplegics and other crippled persons have found disappointing results in their efforts to improve the patient's condition by a program of supported walking. This has been due, at least in part, to the great amount of physical energy which the patient must expend, with consequent cardiovascular and respiratory stress. These adverse effects, together with unacceptable fatigue, are such that the ratio of patient' acceptance of the programs and continued compliance with it are very low, and it is usually found that the patient gives up the program and reverts to the use of a wheelchair.
It has therefore been a principal object of our invention to provide means by which a patient is given a walking movement, assisted by means which produce the beneficial results of walking and at the same time eliminating the fatigue and the adverse cardiovascular and respiratory effects which have made known walking programs ineffective and unacceptable to the patients. This object has been achieved by the apparatus and system provided by this invention.